From "Forest Bathing w/ Hiking Thru Life"   "Forest Service Recommends Hugging Trees While You Can’t Hug Others" Iceland Review Nature Written by Larissa Kyzer | April 10th, 2020   - Full Episode - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3FFWeVD Apple: https://apple.co/3AAsOVb PodBean: https://bit.ly/3lHceyR

Water Cooler Talk Podcast

Episode Sips: Tree Hugger

From "Forest Bathing w/ Hiking Thru Life"   "Message In A Bottle Leads To Rescue Of California Family Stranded On 40ft Waterfall" CBS News | September 11th, 2019   - Full Episode - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3FFWeVD Apple: https://apple.co/3AAsOVb PodBean: https://bit.ly/3lHceyR

Episode Sips: Message In A Bottle

Joined by guest host Sarah Kermode of Hiking Thru Life Podcast (15:12), Adam and Sarah discuss the Icelandic Forest Service giving out advice to take 5 minutes to hug a tree  (02:54) and why trusting a rope from a hiking trail 7 years ago might not be a wise decision (27:59). Enjoy!   Learn more about Sarah’s charity of choice, “HIKE For Mental Health”. “HIKE For Mental Health organizes fundraising hikes to promote healthy outdoor activity, alleviate suffering from mental illness and conserve wilderness trails.”   [News Story]   Forest Service Recommends Hugging Trees While You Can’t Hug Others   Message In A Bottle Leads To Rescue Of California Family Stranded On 40ft Waterfall   [Episode Links]   Hiking Thru Life (www.HikingThruLife.net)   Our Website (www.WaterCoolerTalkPod.com)   Artwork (www.Kohney.com)

Forest Bathing w/ Hiking Thru Life

From "Pay Me w/ John Holden"   Tech Billionaire Puts Money On Eagles Winning Super Bowl LVI In First Sports Bet From Space   If you have money to spend on private space travel, you certainly have money to bet on the incredibly long odds that the Philadelphia Eagles will win Super Bowl LVI next February. And if you put those two things together, you can make a little history. In early September, the first-ever sports bet was placed from outer space aboard SpaceX’s Inspiration4, the first all-private orbital mission around Earth. The three-day trek, led by four American crew members, was part of a charitable effort to reach a fundraising goal of $200 million dollars for St Judes Children Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The commander of Inspiration4, Jared Isaacman, is the billionaire founder of payment processor Shift4 Payments and has made a habit of pursuing world records and world firsts. From space, Jared approached BetMGM about placing two NFL bets, each in the amount of $4,000; with the first bet being an over/under on the score of the New York Giants/Washington Football Team Thursday Night Football game and the second being the long odds on the Eagles. All proceeds from both bets, plus an additional $100 million dollar personal donation from Jared, and a few items taken into space for auction; will go towards St Judes $200 million dollar goal. As for why Jared chose the Eagles to win the Super Bowl? It’s not entirely sure, he’s a North Jersey guy, but Shift4 Payments headquarters is based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Or maybe Jared just thinks the Eagles are that good and will shock the NFL…   "Pay Me" Full Episode Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3zI7FYI Apple: https://apple.co/39M8VzA PodBean: https://bit.ly/3kPn0lO

Episode Sips: Space Bets

From "Pay Me w/ John Holden"   Should Top College Athletes Earn $800,000 A Year? Some Believe So   For Martin Jenkins and other members of the 2014 Clemson Tigers football team, it was a simple rallying cry, but others saw a financial opportunity. The three-word phrase, “We Too Deep”, began as an internal mantra, chanted by players in the locker room and on the sidelines, but it took on a life of its own when Martin transformed it into a song and coaxed his teammates to help produce a music video. The song became an anthem for the team and the video went viral. It didn’t take long for retailers to cash in on the popularity and soon “We Too Deep” shirts flooded the Clemson campus. After trying to sell his own line of shirts, Martin was quickly shut down by Clemson’s compliance officers, who told him that the sales would be a violation of NCAA rules, which prohibit college athletes from earning money during their playing careers. For more than a century the NCAA has served as the chief governing body of college sports in the United States. Comprised of three divisions, the organization regulates more than 1,000 institutions nationwide and has swelled into a multibillion dollar outfit, as media companies have paid ever-increasing sums for the broadcast rights to marquee competitions like the College Football Playoffs and the NCAA basketball tournament (better known as March Madness). In 2014, while still a junior at Clemson, Martin turned his newfound interest into advocacy, signing on as a plaintiff in what was described by ESPN as “the most direct challenge yet to the NCAA’s long standing economic model”. The antitrust claim pushed for student athletes to be paid according to their value on the open market, asserting that the NCAA has illegally limited a player’s compensation to their athletic scholarship. It was consolidated with a separate, narrower lawsuit filed around the same time on behalf of former West Virginia running back Shawne Alston, whose lawsuit focused on targeting the NCAA for it's caps on education-related benefits. Martin Jenkins and Alston’s battle culminated in June, when the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the former athletes. A week after the decision, the NCAA bowed to mounting pressure by announcing rules that would allow student athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness (commonly known by the abbreviation “NIL”); a policy that would have enabled Martin to capitalize off of the success of his music video and the phrase “We Too Deep”. Even with these watershed developments, which upended the NCAA’s stringent rules against compensating student athletes; the model has not been completely dismantled. Student athletes won’t start collecting salaries from their universities and the NCAA remains adamant that they should not be considered employees. That change, should it ever arrive, is certainly years away. Richard Borghesi, a business professor at the University of South Florida, modeled a scenario in 2016 wherein players in college football, by far the most lucrative sport in the NCAA (from 2003 to 2014 college football brought in $2.28 billion per year), would receive a cut of NCAA revenue similar to the cut, 47%, received by NFL players. His ultimate goal was to estimate how much money players would earn if the NCAA allowed them to be paid. He calculates the very best players would be due around $800,000 a year due to the staggering amounts of money they generate for their schools and smaller school players would be due around $21,000 a year. Borghesi wrote a similar scenario within college basketball and estimated that the best players would earn about $613,000 while the least heralded recruits would earn about $50,000. During oral arguments in March about the case, supreme court justices were unimpressed by the NCAA’s attorneys insistence that student athletes retain their “amateur” status. While the revenues generated by big time programs are used to subsidize the often-enormous salaries of coaches (Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has a $8.3 million annual salary) and the world-class training facilities on campus, supreme court justice Samuel Alito stated: “...the athletes themselves have a pretty hard life”. For his part, Martin Jenkins said that although he came from an upper-middle class family, many of his teammates struggled financially during their time at Clemson. Martin stated: “They face training requirements that leave little time or energy for study, constant pressure to put sports above study, pressure to drop out of hard majors and hard classes, really shockingly low graduation rates. Only a tiny percentage ever go on to make any money in professional sports (fewer than 2% go on to play professionally). So the argument is they are recruited, they’re used up and then they’re cast aside without even a college degree...how can this be defended in the name of amateurism?”   "Pay Me" Full Episode Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3zI7FYI Apple: https://apple.co/39M8VzA PodBean: https://bit.ly/3kPn0lO

Episode Sips: Athlete Employees

Joined by guest host John Holden (21:37), Adam and John discuss if the relative ease of sports betting in the US will impact the future of ethical competition (02:15) and how new laws surrounding paying student-athletes can allow players to capitalize on their best earning years (28:38). Enjoy!   Learn more about John’s charity of choice, the ASPCA. “The ASPCA works to rescue animals from abuse, pass humane laws and share resources with shelters nationwide”.   [News Story]   Tech Billionaire Puts Money On Eagles Winning Super Bowl LVI In First Sports Bet From Space   Should Top College Athletes Earn $800,000 A Year? Some Believe So   [Episode Links]   John Holden (www.Twitter.com/JohnSportsLaw)   Our Website (www.WaterCoolerTalkPod.com)   Artwork (www.Kohney.com)

Pay Me w/ John Holden

From "Slippery Slope w/ Macy Ramos"   Who’s Really In Charge Of OnlyFans?   OnlyFans pitch has always been about intimacy. Not because most of the content is erotic (though it is), but because the interaction between creator and consumer is so direct. People subscribe not to OnlyFans as a whole, but to the feed of particular performers. Those performers often develop relationships of a sort with their fans; exchanging messages and personalizing content for particular quirks and kinks. It was a connection that a socially distanced world proved particularly hungry for. However, the platform's decision to ban: and then abruptly unban; explicit content highlights the other parties that were always lurking in the middle of the relationship. The company says the original decision was necessitated by concerns from OnlyFans banks and payment processing companies. That came after Mastercard announced stricter requirements for processing payments for porn sites to try to ensure that performers on the sites were of age and willing participants (OnlyFans does make their creators register with a legal government ID). It’s a reminder that the ability to instantly pay someone many miles away with whom you’ve never met; and whose real name you probably don’t know; doesn’t just come into being. Someone created that infrastructure, maintains it, and your ability to use it depends on their approval. It’s similar to a lesson that has been learned elsewhere. Small e-commerce merchants, reliant on Amazon to reach their customers, find their survival dictated by the internet giant's terms of service. Social media platforms such as Parler and Gab, seen as overly indulgent of racism and misogyny, lose their contracts with web hosters, forcing them to go dark. And in a world where single people increasingly find each other through their phones, those who are booted off of dating apps, for reasons that are sometimes unclear, can be essentially edited out of the dating pool. It is not excusing toxic online trolls or unscrupulous retailers or creepy daters to say that the rules we now rely on to deal with them are opaque, arbitrary and undemocratic. For the sex workers and performers who make their living on OnlyFans, there was always a sense that is was too good to last. Not that the deal for them was all that amazing. OnlyFans provides precious little for the 20% cut it takes of subscription fees: performers get almost no help promoting themselves, and often, have to track down and deal with content piracy on their own. The fact that OnlyFans has become a household name undoubtedly brought attention to what the company probably hoped would pass as a quiet course correction on the way to the initial public offering it is rumored to be planning. In the tweet announcing the reversal of their original decision to ban pornographic content, the company said it had “secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community”; assurances presumably secured from payment processors. It was a victory for content creators in an economy where, in general, they have few points of leverage, but it also made it very very very VERY clear who is still in charge.   "Slippery Slope" Full Episode Spotify: https://spoti.fi/398bcEL Apple: https://apple.co/3AeM9Mh PodBean: https://bit.ly/3nxDFfG

Episode Sips: Sense Of Agency

From "Slippery Slope w/ Macy Ramos"   Why The Baby On Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Album Is Suing Now   Spencer Elden was 4 months-old when he was photographed by family friend, and photographer Kirk Weedle, in 1991 drifting naked in a pool. The now iconic photo would be used for the cover of ‘Nevermind’; Nirvana’s seminal second album that helped define Generation X and rocketed the Seattle band to international fame. In the decades that followed, Spencer appeared to celebrate his part in the classic cover, recreating the moment, non-nude, for the albums 10th, 17th, 20th and 25th anniversaries. In a 2016 interview Spencer stated: “It’s cool but weird to be a part of something so important that I don’t even remember.” Now, 30-years-old, Spencer has filed a federal lawsuit against the estate of Kurt Cobain, the musician’s former bandmates, David Grohl and Krist Novoselic, and Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, among other parties. He claimed they, along with Geffen Records, which released ‘Nevermind’, profited from his naked image. According to the lawsuit: “Defendants knowling produced, possessed and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer and they knowingly received valued in exchange for doing so. Mr. Elden, Spencer, suffered permanent harm because of his association with the album, including emotional distress and a lifelong loss of income-earning capacity.” Spencer’s lawyer, Maggie Mabie, stated: “He hasn’t met anyone who hasn’t seen his genitalia. It’s a constant reminder that he has no privacy. His privacy is worthless to the world. They were trying to create controversy because controversy sells. The point was not just to create a menacing image, but to cross the line and they did so in a way that exposed Spencer...” Mabie said her client agreed when the band, media outlets and fans asked him to recreate the photo as an adult, but he eventually realized that this only resulted in the image being further exploited. Even though Spencer said in a 2015 documentary that the album cover “opened doors” for him; over the years he has expressed ambivalence about the cover. Spencer sated: “It’s be nice to have a quarter for every person that has seen my baby penis.” Spencer said his feelings about the cover began to change when he tried reaching out to the former band about being a part of his art show and was turned away by managers and lawyers. Mabie, Spencer’s lawyer, said his parents never authorized consent for how the images would be used and noted that Cobain, former lead singer of Nirvana, once suggested putting a sticker over the baby’s genitals after there was pushback to the covers idea. Mary Graw Leary, a professor at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, stated that this lawsuit was not a typical child pornography case: “Nudity of a child alone is not the definition of pornography. The typical child pornography that is being seen in law enforcement and pursued in the courts can be violent. The children are young and it is very graphic. But there are factors under federal law that allow a judge or a jury to determine whether a photo of a minor constitutes a lascivious exhibition of the genitals, including if they were the focal point of a photo. That part of the law gives a bit more discretion to the court. It’s not a case with easy answers.” Spencer’s past comments about the cover should not undermine his current claim that he was a victim of child pornography. The law does not pick between children who immediately denounce their abusers and children who initially were dismissive about what happened to them. Professor Graw Leary continued: “We don’t want to be in a position where we’re only going to consider one case criminal because in the other, the child didn’t think it was a big deal at the time. We don’t only protect certain kids.”   "Slippery Slope" Full Episode Spotify: https://spoti.fi/398bcEL Apple: https://apple.co/3AeM9Mh PodBean: https://bit.ly/3nxDFfG

Episode Sips: Perception Privilege

Joined by guest host Macy Ramos (23:48), Adam and Macy discuss the legal lawsuit taken by the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ album (03:24) and how OnlyFans’ sexually explicit content “flip-flop” mostly hurt the creators who allowed OnlyFans to have its platform (39:01). Enjoy!   Learn more about Macy’s charity of choice, New Horizons Shelter And Outreach Centers. “...a shelter for individuals and families who have experienced domestic violence, was organized in 1978 through the cooperative efforts of an informal group of citizens in the La Crosse area who recognized the need for services to victims of domestic abuse.”   [News Story]   Why The Baby On Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Album Is Suing Now   Who’s Really In Charge Of OnlyFans?   [Episode Links]   Macy Ramos (www.LinkedIn.com/Macy-Ramos-14a109104)   Our Website (www.WaterCoolerTalkPod.com)   Artwork (www.Kohney.com)

Slippery Slope w/ Macy Ramos

"China Promotes Education Drive To Make Boys More “Manly”"   A notice from China’s education ministry has caused quite a stir after it suggested young Chinese men had become too “feminine” and some say China’s male celebrities are partly to blame. For a while China’s government has signalled concern that the country’s most popular male role models are no longer strong, athletic figures like “army heroes”. Even President Xi Jinping, a well-known soccer enthusiast, has long been seeking to cultivate better sports stars. A recent proposal by the education ministry, titled “To Prevent The Feminization Of Male Adolescents”, called on schools to fully reform their physical education programs and strengthen their recruitment of those teachers. The text specifically advised recruiting retired athletes and people from sporting backgrounds - and “vigorously developing” particular sports like soccer. Si Zefu, a delegate of China’s top advisory body, said earlier in the year that many of China’s young males had become “weak, timid and self-abasing’. He made the claim that the home environment was partly to blame, with most Chinese boys being raised by their mothers or grandmothers. He also noted that the growing appeal of certain celebrities, mainly boy bands throughout Asia, meant that many children “did not want to be army heroes” anymore. The overwhelming majority of reactions to the proposal have been negative. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese individuals have taken to social media to voice their anger and concern. “Is feminization now a derogatory term?” one social media user asked. Another said “Boys are also humans...being emotional, timid or gentle, these are human characteristics.” On China’s social media platform Weibo, supportive comments pointed towards China’s male celebrities being to blame; largely those who are know as “little fresh meats” which is a common buzzword that refers to young, Chinese males who are seen as squeaky-clean, well-groomed and with delicate features. Boyband TF Boys and Chinese singer Lu Han fall into this category. The “little fresh meats” phenomenon continues to be a proven success for expanding Chinese culture outside of mainland China, but young Chinese male celebrities come under increased scrutiny and find it difficult to be anything that departs from their squeaky-clean mold. In recent years, the media has struggled to allow young male stars to appear on Chinese screens with tattoos or piercings. And in 2019, one of China’s top pop stars from the boyband TF Boys, came under fierce criticism when he was pictured illegally smoking in a Beijing restaurant. As President Xi hopes to turn China into a “world soccer superpower” by 2050, some wonder if HE is even man enough to turn around the impossible task of China’s national soccer team.   "Different Strokes w/ Jeff Abraham" Full Episode Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3taaDn5 Apple: https://apple.co/38u7gxQ PodBean: https://bit.ly/3Bv5Yza

Little Fresh Meat | 067 | Story B

"Danish Kids TV Show Centered On Man With World’s Longest Penis Raises Eyebrows"   A Danish animated show, which revolves around the life of John Dillermand - the man with “the world’s longest penis”, has since premiered on the Danish Public Service Children’s Channel DR Ramasjang and has raised more than a few eyebrows by concerned adults. The target audience for the show, children aged four to eight, watches as Dillermand uses his penis when he finds himself in need of, for example, a longer leash for his dogs, helping a neighbor raise a flag or even stealing ice cream from a child; which he is embarrassed by doing. Reactions across social media and the internet have been mixed… Some describe it as upsetting and not suitable for children or have proclaimed it too pornographic; others have been worried that their children will get the wrong impression from watching the show, thinking that exposing their genitals might be an acceptable practice. But those on the other side of the “Dillermand debate” say adults are reading too much into the immediate optics of the cartoon and instead of focusing on the non-sexual message and sexual education that the show presents, are instead viewing it through the sexualized lens of an adult. Morten Skov Hansen, the head of DR Ramasjang, issued a statement saying the show will continue to be aired as planned and would not have been created in the first place if it did not have development help by Sex & Samfund, a Danish association for sexual education.   "Different Strokes w/ Jeff Abraham" Full Episode Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3taaDn5 Apple: https://apple.co/38u7gxQ PodBean: https://bit.ly/3Bv5Yza

Dillermand Debate | 067 | Story A

Joined by guest host Jeff Abraham (22:37), Adam and Jeff discuss if children should watch a cartoon about the world’s longest penis (03:53) and how China’s switch towards “war hero” masculinity might impact societies view of what it means to be a modern man (29:19). Enjoy!   [News Story]   Danish Kids TV Show Centred On Man With World’s Longest Penis Raises Eyebrows   China Promotes Education Drive To Make Boys More “Manly”   [Episode Links]   Jeff Abraham (www.Twitter.com/JeffAbraham111)   Our Website (www.WaterCoolerTalkPod.com)   Artwork (www.Kohney.com)

Different Strokes w/ Jeff Abraham

Joined by guest host Natasha Sohni (30:46), Adam and Natasha discuss building friendships across political lines (03:34) and how critical race theory is re-washing America’s past (50:46). Enjoy!   Learn more about Natasha’s charity of choice, Khalsa Aid. “Khalsa Aid is an international NGO with the aim to provide humanitarian aid in disaster areas and civil conflict zones around the world”.   [News Story]   Why Friendships Are Falling Apart Over Politics   Critical Race Theory Ban Leads Oklahoma College To Cancel Class That Taught “White Privilege”   [Episode Links]   Natasha Sohni (www.NatSohni.wordpress.com)   Our Website (www.WaterCoolerTalkPod.com)   Artwork (www.Kohney.com)

Critical Location Theory w/ Natasha Sohni

Joined (for a 2nd time) by guest host Jake Teeny (28:39), Adam and Jake discuss the current hullabaloo surrounding the misinformation associated with the origins of COVID-19 (04:23) and what the latest patent approval by Spotify could mean for the future of playlist recommendations (34:44). Enjoy!   Learn more about Jake’s charity of choice, PAWS Chicago. “PAWS Chicago is a national model in animal sheltering, committed to bringing an end to the killing of homeless cats and dogs”.   [News Story]   The Media’s Lab Leak Debacle Shows Why Banning “Misinformation” Is A Terrible Idea   Spotify Patents Tech To Monitor Your Speech, Infer Emotion   [Episode Links]   Jake Teeny (www.EverydayPsych.com)   Our Website (www.WaterCoolerTalkPod.com)   Artwork (www.Kohney.com)

Privacy Paradox w/ Jake Teeny

Joined by guest host Harriet Hunt (12:44), Adam and Harriet discuss younger generations taking on the challenges of exploring space (04:04) and how the Swiss are taking on space junk (22:34). Enjoy!   Learn more about Harriet’s charity of choice, Stand.Earth. “Stand challenges corporations and governments to treat people and the environment with respect, because our lives depend on it”.   [News Story]   17 YO. Discovers Planet 6.9 Times Larger Than Earth On 3rd Day Of Internship With NASA   The World’s First Space ‘Garbage Truck’ Will Be Swiss   [Episode Links]   Harriet Hunt (www.Twitter.com/Hunt_Harriet)   Our Website (www.WaterCoolerTalkPod.com)   Artwork (www.Kohney.com)

Leaders Of Tomorrow w/ Harriet Hunt

"Conversation based comedy news podcast that aims to connect the world through strange and interesting real-life news stories."

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